Handing the Baton to You

On Friday night, my friend Jen text me a tear-eyed and broken heart emoji and the initials RBG. I text her back, “What happened to RBG?”  And soon, like millions, I would find out the sad news that she had transitioned.  

I won’t forget where I was that day as I was admitted to the hospital for pelvic pain and an infection that needed to be monitored.  As I sat in my unexpected “wellcation” I was front and center to all the news coverage and commentary for the next three days as I got well. 

My biggest takeaway from her life and there are so many is that her path was the pathless path. She hit the roadblock of not being able to be hired out of law school even though she was at the top of her class.  She needed to find another way. 

The inequality she faced because of her ethnicity, gender and even motherhood became her rallying cry not only for her own life but she changed the course of equality for woman and for men who could not receive Social Security benefits if their spouse died. 

One of my favorite quotes is, “You have been assigned this mountain so that you can show others it can be moved.”, and that’s what Ruth Bader Ginsberg did in moving her own mountain.  

And now it’s my turn. I receive her baton and keep running and know whatever roadblock or challenge I may face, to keep going because I never know where these pathless paths may lead.

Here I come running with my baton, reaching for your outstretched hand. Are you ready? 

Together we run the human race.

Love,

Louisa 

P.S.  I love to connect, feel free to comment.